Prince: The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Prince

Prince: The Last Interview and Other Conversations Reviews

• 
  Laura

  This was my introduction into "The Last Interview" series of books. It was a great one. An easy to read work, written so well it felt like the reader was sitting in on the conversations.
• 
  Lexi Hill

  My first of the “Last Interview” series - I enjoyed this so much and wish it were longer! Abdurraqib wrote a wonderful introduction.
• 
  Niklas Pivic

  Prince, elusive, mysterious, and to a lot of western journalists, sexual, which partly is the problem with this collection of interviews; don’t let the title and subtitle fool you: this is a collection of interviews and an introduction by Hanif Abdurraqib.
  
  From the introduction, by Abdurraqib:
  
  

  Reading these interviews now is to see just how much Prince adhered to this type of negotiation. Not included here are several interviews where Prince barely offered up more than one-sentence answers, and even in the more substantial interviews this collection gathers, interviewers clearly had to work to get Prince into an actual dialogue, sometimes with wince-inducing results. In an interview for Q Magazine in 1994, when pushed on a question about why sex was such a dominant theme in his work (the interviewer insisted that “Come,” the title track of his then newest album, had to be about orgasm), Prince responds: “Is it? That’s your interpretation? Come where? Come to whom? Come for what? [laughs] That’s just the way you see it. It’s your mind.”

  
  
  Prince was old-school. I love this recollection:
  
  

  For a lascivious figure, he followed for much of his life (and up to a point) the strict orthodoxy of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. No alcohol or drugs; he didn’t even swear. On Twitter, Talib Kweli recounted the story about DJing gangsta rap at a party that Prince had attended. He approached Kweli to tell him: “I ain’t get dressed up to come out and hear curses.”

  
  
  I also must add this, which is something:
  
  

  Also mysterious was how, in one performance of “My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Tom Petty for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he finished an astounding solo by throwing his guitar up into the rafters. It never came back down.

  
  
  Regardless of the above, after the introduction, the interviews flow in chronological order. It’s sweet to see a magazine from Minneapolis draw this out:
  
  

  Prince plays by ear. “I’ve had about two lessons, but they didn’t help much. I think you’ll always be able to do what your ear tells you, so just think how great you’d be with lessons also,” he said. “I advise anyone who wants to learn guitar to get a teacher unless they are very musically inclined. One should learn all their scales too. That is very important,” he continued.

  
  
  This one’s quite sweet as well:
  
  

  SCHWARTZ: Are there any records of the last few months or year that struck you as particularly exciting or special?
  
  PRINCE: I wish there was, but I guess if there were we wouldn’t be in the slump we are in the music business.

  
  
  What strikes me as one of Prince’s most lovely aspects in handling stupid, non-researched, and tabloidish questions, is how he turned them into gold. This quote is inspirational:
  
  

  SCHWARTZ: How about your stage show? Like don’t you think you look a little silly to some people when you’re up there in a jockstrap?
  
  PRINCE: Maybe to people who only read about it, but I think the people who come to see it already expect it and wanna get into that [i.e., his underpants]. I’ve gotten a lot of criticism from outsiders, but once they see the show they understand why I wear what I wear. The show’s real athletic and we run around a lot. and I have to be real comfortable. The decision was left up to me, and when I thought about what I was most comfortable in, it’s what I sleep in . . . I just can’t stand clothes.

  
  
  The man went from “don’t you think you look a little silly?” to completely leaving the interviewer, as it were, in a state of undress, by stating that he doesn’t stand clothes? Again, I must state that Prince was an interview alchemist.
  
  This, from a live TV interview, is also brilliant:
  
  

  FARGNOLI: Speaking of movies, when and how did you first get the idea for Purple Rain? Did you really spend a year or so taking notes in a purple notebook, like some people have said?
  
  PRINCE: Yes.

  
  
  I also dig this quote:
  
  

  PRINCE: James Brown played a big influence in my style. When I was about ten years old, my stepdad put me on stage with him, and I danced a little bit until the bodyguard took me off. The reason I liked James Brown so much is that, on my way out, I saw some of the finest dancing girls I ever seen in my life. And I think, in that respect, he influenced me by his control over his group. Another big influence was Joni Mitchell. She taught me a lot about color and sound, and to her, I’m very grateful.

  
  
  As Abdurraqib writes in his introduction, it’s easy to spot the points where Prince reacts to insipid, vapid, and stupid interviewers:
  
  

  DEEVOY: What happens in your life when you’re not doing music?
  
  THE ARTIST: [Hikes, eyebrows, looks incredulous] When I’m not doing music?
  
  DEEVOY: Do you have a life outside of your work?
  
  THE ARTIST: Yes.
  
  DEEVOY: And what does that involve?
  
  THE ARTIST: [Pinteresque pause] Have you never read about me? I’m a very private person.
  
  DEEVOY: I’m not prying, I’m just interested.
  
  THE ARTIST: I know. I understand.

  
  
  His words on vegetarianism are laudable; I dig the last part of the first paragraph in this quote:
  
  

  Mayte cooks for us. She’s always trying new things. The wonderful thing about vegetarianism is there is no favorite dish because there is no addiction. Non-vegetarians always speak about their favorite because it usually involves something artificial or something that doesn’t belong in them. Ah, the universe keeps expanding!
  
  Compassion is an action word with no boundaries. It is never wasted. To eat a tomato and then replant it for your nutrition as opposed to killing a cow or a pig for your meal is reducing the amount of suffering in the world. Besides, pigs are too cute to die.

  
  
  Here’s another part, from the same interview as the above, that fascinates me:
  
  

  CENSOR: Do you worry that fans of your music might be put off by the message of songs like “Animal Kingdom” or by the public declaration of your vegetarianism?
  
  THE ARTIST: Fan is short for “fanatic.” I call my supporters “friends.” My friends are very forward-thinking individuals. I’m not sure how many are meat eaters but soon all will know the consequences of a barbarian lifestyle. It’s called karma! My music is dictated by the spirit. Not worrying about people’s reaction is what has sustained me. I believe.

  
  
  The man was early on Internet, describing the inevitable death of record companies. Here, he speaks with some Yahoo! Internet interviewer, in 1997:
  
  

  GREENMAN: Are there any sites that you think are especially good?
  
  THE ARTIST: Love 4 One Another. I also like the news section on AOL.
  
  GREENMAN: Are there any sites that you think are especially bad?
  
  THE ARTIST: Bad is not a word I use unless I am describing a fine girl.

  
  
  

  GREENMAN: Since you broke with Warner Bros., you’ve explored alternatives to traditional distribution. Do you have any plans to sell your music directly to consumers via the Net?
  
  THE ARTIST: Yes. NPG Records will sell as well as give away a lot of new and old music over the internet in the not-toodistant future.
  
  GREENMAN: Will record labels eventually disappear?
  
  THE ARTIST: The writing is on the wall. Other souls were successful in their divide-and-conquer approach 4 a while. But now that we communicate with each other on a worldwide basis, the need 4 an “in4mation censor” is no longer a reality. The process of manufacturing and delivering music 2 a “friend” is not brain surgery.

  
  
  Towards the later part of his life, he had an all-female band (bar himself, of course).
  
  

  Prince specifically wanted a female band, seeking out members via YouTube—back in 2010, he had discovered Nielsen on MySpace. “We’re in the feminine aspect now,” he says. “That’s where society is. You’re gonna get a woman president soon. Men have gone as far as they can, right? . . . I learn from women a lot quicker than I do from men . . . At a certain point, you’re supposed to know what it means to be a man, but now what do you know about what it means to be a woman? Do you know how to listen? Most men don’t know how to listen.”

  
  
  I dig some of his weird conspiracy theories thrown in:
  
  

  He has thoughts on the JFK assassination (“The car slows down—why doesn’t it speed up?”); AIDS (“It’s rising in some communities, and it’s not rising in others—any primate could figure out why”); and the airplane trails known in some circles as chemtrails (“Think about where they appear, why they appear, how often and what particular times of the year”).

  
  
  Regardless of how I loathe Chris Brown for his sexism, abuse of women, and homophobia, it’s still quite easy to get why Prince says the following:
  
  

  He mentions a desire to mentor Chris Brown, says he invited him to Paisley Park. I note that some people think what Brown did to Rihanna was unforgivable. He’s shocked. “Unforgivable?” he says. “Goodness. That’s when we go check the master, Christ . . . Have you ever instantly forgiven somebody?” I shake my head. “It’s the best feeling in the world, and it totally dismantles that person’s whole stance.”
  
  He talks more about mentoring and helping peers, so I wonder aloud if he thinks he could’ve forestalled Michael Jackson’s fate. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Prince says at first. “I’m too close to it.” He goes on: “He is just one of many who have gone through that door—Amy Winehouse and folks. We’re all connected, right, we’re all brothers and sisters, and the minute we lock that in, we wouldn’t let anybody in our family fall. That’s why I called Chris Brown. All of us need to be able to reach out and just fix stuff. There’s nothing that’s unforgivable.”

  
  
  During his last published interview:
  
  

  Nevertheless, it’s turning out to be harder to ask questions than you might think. Prince is seated at a microphone behind a keyboard, which he keeps playing. This is quite disconcerting: if he doesn’t like a question, he strikes up with the theme from The Twilight Zone and shakes his head.

  
  
  Brilliant.
  
  There’s a lot of weirdness left after the book is read, but this is—I feel—from the dregs of interviews that weren’t conducted properly. The naïvité of the first interview is just sweet, but the most sensationalistic stuff…I gather that Prince graciously put up with that to get through the day.
  
  I’ll leave you with a part from the very last interview, that wraps things up fairly lovely:
  
  

  Last night, he says, he sat here alone, after everyone else had gone home, and played and sang for three hours straight. “I just couldn’t stop,” he says. He’d got “in the zone . . . like an out-of-body experience”: it felt like he was sitting in the audience watching himself. “That’s what you want. Transcendence. When that happens”—he shakes his head—“Oh, boy.”
• 
  Barb (Boxermommyreads)

  I read this one early in March as I was able to grab it on release day on Overdrive. It was a collection of 6 interviews, including Prince's last one. I did find some of the interviews interesting as I never realized he was interviewed for a vegan magazine.
  
  I didn't really gain any new insights on Prince, which would have been nice, but it was a quick read and a nice trip down memory lane. I did find it funny how hard Prince was to interview at times. He often made a game of dealing with the press and wasn't until his later years that he shared much about himself to the public.
  
  I don't think I'll be picking this one up for my collection. I just don't think it's worth the money that they are asking for a physical copy. Maybe I can find a used copy one day. If you're a fan, you probably know most of everything in this collection.
  
• 
  Francesco

  Prince was notoriously impossible to interview. Through the 80s, he barely said a word. In the 90s, he spent more time to make the interlocutor uncomfortable than in providing meaningful answers. Later on in his career, he became more conversational. But, reading his latest interviews, I felt not only he didn't have much to say, but what he said didn't make much sense: his lucubrations (irony intended) include animalism, Biblical studies, some superficial Eastern ideas, and a selection of Western conspiracy theories. I think it is much better to listen to Prince's music, as he was a self-taught musical genius, with a huge charisma (and ego), a great sense of showmanship, and who left us some truly remarkable sounds that made the history of music.
• 
  Crystal

  I borrowed this for Hanif Abdurraqib's essay.
• 
  Amy Adams

  They say don’t ever meet your heroes. If these are the ten best Prince interviews, then that old saying rings true. The interviews take you on a bizarre rollercoaster through Prince’s nearly four decades as a recording and performing artist.
  
  The first interview is cute. Imagine going to high school with Prince and getting to interview him! Of course, at the time, he was probably using music to get girls, or vice versa, and the girls were probably really digging it. You go on to read about him shuffling around in white socks with flipflops, materializing (a word that more than one journalist uses independently) at absurd times, and communicating through his music. Unfortunately, you also read about his opinions on Chris Brown (he should be unquestioningly forgiven for his abuse of Rihanna), gay marriage (the Bible says no), and his odd way with reporters (making them wait days on location before conducting the interview, remanding no questions be asked, forbidding talk of the past). In the end, things tie up nicely with talk of transcendence, a couple of goosebump-inducing performances and a hug that lingers in your mind long after the hugger has moved to the next realm. Overall, though, it leaves a lingering bitter taste in the back of your throat because there are something’s you can’t let go of. I suppose, though, that’s part of Prince’s genius—leave your audience feeling loved, confused, wanting more, unsure of how they feel.
  
  I’d recommend this book to someone who wanted a quick glimpse at moments throughout Prince’s life.
• 
  Joshua

  I really like this series of books because even if I'm not familiar with the central figure I still finish these with a deeper appreciation of another human being. Prince is a musician who hasn't meant a lot to me personally in my life, but I still have endless respect and admiration for a man who lived his life the way he wanted to and created music which has lasted past his death and continues to inspire. These interviews gave me a real insight into Prince as a man, as a public figure, and as an artist who was simply trying to live in the moment and make the art that sung in his heart and mind and soul.
• 
  Athena Rupas

  I think this is a great addition to the "Last Interview" series. He wasn't one to grant access to people who wanted to interview him, but what was compiled over the years is a good solid look into his life and music. This is definitely a must-read for Prince fans!
  
  “I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”
• 
  Audra

  I'm going to give anything with Prince 5 stars. This is just a compilation of interviews done over the years, beginning with his high school newspaper in the 1970s. Prince is always elusive but you do get a teeny glimpse into the vastness of who he was.
  
  I still can't believe he's gone...
• 
  Carmen Slaughter

  Nice compilation of material, especially since Prince didn't grant many people acces throughout his lifetime, and a worthy addition to the Last Interview series.
• 
  Justlesa Hall

  For a man that didn't give interviews, I love how they were able to bring this collection together. It adds to the wonder and the mystery that was Prince.
• 
  Annie C. Leavitt

  Fascinating to learn more (just a teeny bit) about Prince’s outlandish, yet conservative, extreme yet subtle life. A fun, short read for a Prince admirer for his artistic integrity.
• 
  Jen H

  I really just wanted to read the Hanif Abdurraqib introduction to the book. I love his take on all things pop culture.
• 
  Elizabeth Puntolillo

  Worth reading.
• 
  Rachel

  A handful of interviews, including the final one, of the late and great Prince. He was a regular guy who just happened to be insanely talented and very quirky.
• 
  Carol Grant

  Found this at the airport and didn’t even know these Last Interview books existed. I really enjoyed this quick read (read the whole thing on the airplane) and learning a few things about Prince. I look forward to a few others soon.
• 
  🍥

  I've been a fan of Prince since I was a child. When I was five years old, "Darling Nikki" was my favorite song in the world–totally not appropriate for a child of my age, but my dad did not care about things like that, and my mom was often working, so she couldn't stop him from playing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. I spent much of my childhood years dreaming of marrying Prince. Even when there were lapses, years when I only really ever listened to Purple Rain or a track or two from Emancipation but didn't seek out any new music, Prince was close to my heart. He has been, and will likely always be, the only celebrity death I have cried over. I was so distraught that I had to leave work early...
  And yet, I've never made an effort to look up interviews, rumors, or anything else about him. Perhaps, it's because I'm not all that interested in the personal lives of public figures. Or maybe, though I doubt this, I just intrinsically knew how private he was and I didn't want to disrespect that. Whatever it may have been, I had no interest in knowing about him outside of his music, and what was said about him by other artists I love, like Janelle Monaé and Beyoncé. It wasn't until recently, when I found out a posthumous memoir was being published. I bought it when it came out, bought this book, and was recently gifted
  The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince, if only to learn more about the legend that I adored.
  
  It was a pleasure being able to find out so much more about Prince. I didn't even know he had siblings until reading this, even though I've been a fan my whole life. It was entertaining seeing how difficult and insufferable, but in a completely charming way, he was. It reminded me of one of my closest friends, and that made me smile. It was also interesting to learn things about him that I found unfavorable–namely the uncomfortable (for me) age difference between him and Mayte, his opinion about forgiveness in regards to Chris Brown, and whatever that implication he was trying to make when the New Yorker's Claire Hoffman asked him his thoughts on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage–because it forced me to reckon with the idea of him that I had in my head. I truly deified him, thinking he was above it all. The fact that I was so shocked that he could do such a human thing as have siblings is a testament to that. Reading this brought him down to Earth for me, showing me that he was a human being like me, someone who said and did things I might not have liked, even if I appreciated him as a person.
  
  I'm excited and nervous to read his memoir, and Mayte's, to discover more things about him, and to see how my ideal of him is further shattered.
• 
  Winston

  The interviews included just humanized this amazing soul even more and made me even more intrigued with him, his music, and his craft. Downside was that this was too short. I guess it is to be expected since he was frugal in how/when he gave interviews.
• 
  Amanda

  This was my first dip into the Last Interview series, and it took me by surprise to discover that I think it's brilliant. I so enjoyed this!
  
  A collection of the very first, the very last, and the very best interviews conducted with Prince over his nearly 40-year career.
  Hanif Abduraqqib has written an excellent introduction to this collection of interviews. And those interviews have been selected in a way that paints a multifaceted, vibrant portrait of Prince's life.
  
  I've been inspired to read all I can about Prince after recently touring Paisley Park. (I'm Minnesotan and was in the neighborhood.)
  He was an incredibly interesting human. Super-human talented. Intelligent. Mysterious. Eccentric. Passionate. Hard working, but also witty and playful. These interviews show all of that.
  
  For readers less familiar with Prince's story, this might leave blanks to fill in, there are several-year gaps between interviews. In that case, I can see this being a great starting point in piquing interest.
  Having already learned a lot about Prince's life and work, and having experienced Paisley Park, which is described here, this was a great read.
• 
  Caterina Pierre

  This is a fine little book of interviews with Prince, our much beloved and sorely missed hero. If you are a big fan, none of these interviews will be new to you, and if the interviews here were originally published in Condé Nast publications, then you already have these interviews in one of the many commemorative publications put out over the past three years. I knew of, but do not think I had read, the first interview before (by Lisa Crawford in the Central High Pioneer, 1976) — a very sweet little piece where we first read his voice. And I don’t think I saw the last interview before from The Guardian (by Alexis Petridis, 2015), where he discusses his plans for the Piano and a Microphone tour, which very few insanely lucky people got to see. This is a nice small series. I think, however, we all need a complete collection of the interviews in the future. This might be a nice gift for someone who wants to learn more about Prince, but for a True Purple Funk Soldier, they will already know these interviews, possibly by heart.
• 
  Crystal

  I've been looking at a couple of these "The Last Interview" books and was intrigued, but wondered how compelling they'd be. I'm in Seattle and found this in a local bookstore the day before I went to the Museum of Pop Culture to see the Prince exhibit (among others), so I thought reading this before going to the museum would be the perfect "prep." And I really enjoyed it! I loved the way they compiled the interviews. It gave a nice overview of Prince through the years and told the reader a bit of his story.
• 
  LianaReads blog

  
  I love Prince and his music and everything about him since I was a child, but living in a country with not so much information, was hard to be up to date with everything that happened in his life.
  This book it’s perfect in all the ways I needed and wanted to read and think about him.
  Thanks the author for coming up with this idea and bringing us a small but important part of this iconic character that will be alive for many years through his music.
• 
  Anna Alexander

  Full disclosure: I’m a huge Prince fan.
  
  That being said, if you don’t like doing interviews or letting journalists into your “inner sanctum” then don’t. Agreeing to an interview and then being silent and not talking during is annoying and rude to the journalist just trying to do their jobs.
  
  Loved the intro.
  
  Now I want to find the David Bowie Last Interview.
• 
  C

  I wanted to like this more than I did. I found it very underwhelming. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I would've preferred reading a memoir. Oh well. Was a quick read. I wouldn't recommend it though. Seems the majority enjoyed it. To each their own.
• 
  Andrea

  This series of interviews with the elusive musical artist Prince range from high school to the last interview before his death, and reveal his brilliance, creativity and wit. Aside from some typos in the text, they were an interesting read.
• 
  Kate Hanley

  I wanted more. Like, if there was a second half of the book with anecdotes from other people about Prince. Gabrielle Union had a great short chapter on Prince's parties in her book, feel like I learned more about him from that than from this slim volume. But still, I'll take what I can get.
• 
  Doug

  hit-and-miss but fascinating, with an annoying amount of typos
• 
  gnarlyhiker

  think: Rolling Stones or Interview magazines.
• 
  Simon Sweetman

  Some great interviews here - a few clunkers too. But it's worth it for that classic last entry. So, so good.